y the Reformed Pastors Theus
and Froelich. In 1787 these ministers and congregations had united as a
"corpus evangelicum" under the following title: "Unio Ecclesiastica of
the German Protestant Churches in the State of South Carolina." Pastor
Daser was chosen _Senior Ministerii_. At the following convention,
January 8, 1788, all Lutheran ministers present pledged themselves on
the Symbolical Books. A third meeting was held August 12, 1788;
President Daser presented a constitution, which was adopted. Among other
things it provided: 1. The intention of this union was not that any
member should deny his own confession. 2. A Directorium, composed of the
ministers and two laymen, should remain in power as long as a majority
of the 15 congregations would be in favor of it. 3. The Directorium
should be entrusted with all church affairs: the admission, dismissal,
election, examination, ordination, and induction of ministers; the
establishment of new churches and schools; the order of divine service,
collections, etc. 4. Any member of any of the congregations was bound to
appear before the Directorium when cited by this body. 5. Where the
majority of a congregation was Reformed, a Reformed Agenda and Catechism
were to be used. 6. The ministers should be faithful in the discharge of
their pastoral duties, . . . visiting the schools frequently,
admonishing the parents to give their children a Christian training,
etc. 7. A copy of this constitution should be deposited in every
congregation and subscribed by its members. 8. Complaints against the
pastor which the vestry failed to settle should be reported to the
President immediately. 9. The brethren in Europe should be petitioned to
provide the congregations with preachers and schoolteachers.--It is
self-evident that this anomalous union with a Directorium invested with
governing and judicial powers, to whose decisions Lutheran as well as
Reformed pastors and congregations had to submit, lacked vitality, and,
apart from flagrant denials of the truth, was bound to lead to
destructive frictions. After an existence of several years the "Unio
Ecclesiastica" died a natural death, the Directorium, as far as has been
traced, holding its last meeting in 1794. By 1804, the ministers who had
organized this union body, all save one, were dead. The congregations
eked out a miserable existence, becoming, in part, a prey to the
Methodists and Baptists. Thus also the promising Lutheran field of Sou